


learn to fight it

by lialyn2



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-27
Updated: 2012-06-27
Packaged: 2017-11-08 15:57:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/444905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lialyn2/pseuds/lialyn2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a little bit of a character piece on the amazing Natasha Romanoff, emphasizing her ever-changing relationship with Clint Barton.</p>
            </blockquote>





	learn to fight it

In Natasha’s line of work, in order to be successful (read: stay alive), you need to have good instincts. Hand-to-hand combat? Instinct. Finding an angle to successfully extract information from a source? Oftentimes, instinct. Where to go and who to ally with (temporarily, that is) and which clients to take on? Pure instinct.

So Natasha hones her instincts, reflexes, impulses. Yet somewhere along the way, when she crosses paths with a specific someone, her refined façade nearly flickers. (That was Budapest.) But Natasha Romanoff doesn’t have _moments_ , and her façade doesn’t flicker, and Natasha Romanoff can only let herself think of her debts and her credits. So she trains herself to adopt this instinct, an instinct regarding her weakness for this one strong, intelligent, extraordinary man: _learn to fight it_.

She fights it. She fights it valiantly. She travels to the other side of the country, and then to the other side of the world, and then, through some sense of obligation to Agent Phil Coulson (and one Agent Barton), she finds herself back at S.H.I.E.L.D.

And _it_ is much harder to fight when it’s so near to her, when she's so constantly aware of that in the back of her mind, when he's (first) controlled by the enemy and (second) fighting beside her in the battle of the century.

In fact, she finds her resolve softening, her persistence wearying (the spy in her hates herself for it). And after shawarma, the other parts of her win out over the spy, and she decides to stay, to see what might happen between she and him. Maybe something good.

Because maybe life isn’t all about having a ledger. Maybe it’s about having a life.


End file.
